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Life and Career

A young Ashley.

Ashley Benson was born and raised in Anaheim Hills, California. At age 3, she started dancing competitively in ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and lyrical. Ashley also enjoyed singing and had appeared in several choir groups and musicals.

At age 4, she was asked to audition to sing solo at four Christmas services for her 2,500 member church. At 5 years old, she modeled in dance catalogs, and at age 8 was pursued by The Ford Modeling Agency and worked steadily in print. She has also performed in NLT's music video "That Girl".

In 2001, Ashley started pursuing an acting career. She began working and appearing on a number of commercials but quickly made the transition into film and television. In 2002, she was in a Salon Surprise Barbie commercial. In 2004, Benson signed a three-year contract with the daytime television series, Days of our Lives, and on November 12, 2004, began her role as Abigail "Abby" Deveraux until May 2, 2007.

She played a witch disguised as a cheerleader in a 2008 episode of the CW series Supernatural. In films, she was one of the "Six Chicks" in 13 Going on 30, and appeared as Carson in an installment of the Bring It On series, Bring It On: In It to Win It.

In 2008, she appeared in the Lifetime TV movie Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal, where she played head cheerleader Brooke of the Fab Five, which is based on a true story which took place at McKinney North High School in Texas.

During 2012, she starred in an Indie film-movie called, Spring Breakers alongside Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, and James Franco. Spring Breakers is still one of her favorite projects she has ever done. In addition, Ashley did not get paid for the project, despite it being a smash hit at theaters, and earning over thirty-one-million dollars worldwide.[1]

After PLL wrapped in 2017, she took a break from acting and directing. Her next movie called, Smell Her, is in pre-production. In 2018, her relationship with model and actress, Cara Delevingne, was made public by the media.

Quotes

On audition for PLL: I was sobbing right before it. Eastwick was canceled that Monday. The next morning, I was in the casting offices. I was literally crying in the office because I had just found out that my show got canceled.

Talking about Haleb in Season 7: I mean, I say I always want them to be together, but I don't know if that's where their storyline is going to go. I hope it does. In a perfect world, I mean, I would want them to get back together. But, we'll see.

They didn't let us take anything! I was really excited to take her clothes. But everything is owned by Warner Bros. so we couldn't really do much there. I was so sad.

When I found out the ending, it was really shocking. You would never think that would even be possible. I think the fans are going to be really shocked. It completely came out of nowhere which was really cool. But everyone's storyline kind of wraps up.

Being able to play a powerful female in a role — in a lead role at that, because there aren't a lot of lead opportunities for women — is super important for me to find. I think it's really important for me to play someone that people talk about afterward and say, 'wow, that's an amazing woman. I wanna be like her.

We're always going to be a family. This is not the end for any of us.

Ashley (via Instagram): I LOVE YOU GUYS. Thank you for coming on this journey with me and the rest of the cast for the last seven years. Without all of you watching every week none of this would've been possible. Pll was such an amazing experience and I am so lucky I got to work with the BEST cast and crew who I am now lucky enough to call family. Hope you enjoy the last episode ever of PLL

Trivia

Both Ashley Benson and co-star Tyler Blackburn had appearances on Days of Our Lives.

She is best friends with co-star Shay Mitchell. They have live streams together called "Buttah Benzo."

She met her future costar Lucy Hale at the age of 15 through Myspace via mutual friends of theirs.

She previously appeared on Days Of Our Lives where her uncle was played by Roark Critchlow who plays her father on this show. Though both appeared at different times. She also briefly appeared on an episode of Zoey 101 where Roark Critchlow appeared recurringly as the main character's father.

Ashley was born two months early weighing 2 pounds 8 oz. She was in NICU for a month. Her parents were told she would need heart surgery on Christmas Day. Prayers were answered when her parents went in Christmas Day and were told by doctors that her heart had closed up. Ashley never needed any surgeries. She was released to go home at 4 1/2 pounds after being hospitalized two months.

The theme song for Pretty Little Liars "Secret" by The Pierces was suggested by her. Since she's a fan of their music and told the producers and creator claiming, "It's so spooky and eerie and it's perfect for the show." So they took up the song on her suggestion.

Her first acting job was in a Dominos Pizza commercial.

She has done a photo shoot with Britney Spears for Vogue magazine.

One of Ashley's funny experiences on getting recognized is when she was buying ice cream at McDonald's with her cousins when the lady at the counter asked her "You look really familiar. Are you Abby on Days Of Our Lives?" Then she made Ashley sign a McDonald's bag.